WordPress released version 4.4 today, named: Clifford. It’s given this name in the honor of Clifford Brown, the jazz trumpeter.
In the new era of being responsive and more connectivity, WordPress has made huge improvements in this release and improves these functions.
A new theme is also included with this version call Twenty Sixteen.
What’s new in WordPress 4.4
There are numerous changes patched into this release of wordpress. The main ones worth mentioning are:
- New theme, Twenty Sixteen
- Responsive images
- WordPress now shows responsive images depending upon the screen size!
- New embed feature!
- Now you can embed your wordpress site posts into any other site, including other wordpress sites
- Simply paste the link of your site on other one and it will show the preview!
- Being used a oEmbed provider
- Added more oEmbed providers including:
- Cloudup
- Reddit comments
- Speaker Deck
- ReverbNation
- VideoPress
- Rest API integrated to core
- Various changes for developers
This release will really improve and change the way WordPress is used!
How to upgrade to WordPress 4.4
Updating your current WordPress version to latest 4.4 is simple. Follow these steps:
1. Goto WordPress dashboard
Login to your WordPress site dashboard by going to:
http://domain.com/wp-admin
Change “domain” to your own domain url.
2. Backup your site
Make sure that you backup all the files and databases on your site before proceeding.
This step isn’t required but is recommended, especially if you’re running an active production site where you can’t take chances of getting any error.
3. Update to WordPress 4.4
Go to your wordpress admin panel dashboard and click on the link on top saying “WordPress 4.4 is available! Please update ow.” click on the “Please update now” link.
It will take you to the next page showing details of update and other upgrades available for plugins on your website.
Leave the plugins for now. Only focus on the WordPress core version update.
Click on the “Update Now” button.
This will direct you to the next page that will download and install everything automatically. You don’t need to make any change during the process.
Once completed, it will redirect you to the next page where database upgrade button will be visible, like:
Click “Update WordPress Database” button on this page to update the database.
Once the database has been updated, it will redirect you to another page telling you that the update is complete and you can click the button to continue after successful update, like:
Click on the continue button and it will redirect you to the WordPress dashboard with a “Welcome to WordPress 4.4” message.
Congratulations! your WordPress is updated to the latest 4.4 version now and you can now experience the improvements in this amazing release!
Updating WordPress is a simple process however seek professional help (from me too) if you’re not confident with these type of tasks.
You might also need to clear the cache of your WordPress plugins including W3 total cache in order to make it work properly.
Let me know if you have any difficulty while updating your WordPress or if you want me to do this for you.